Biodiversity encompasses the diversity of life – the varying and different species, genes, and ecosystems of the Earth. The ongoing loss of biodiversity threatens human well-being and makes the need for conservation ever more pressing.

This user-friendly guide bridges the gap between conservation biology and its application to typical land trust projects. Intended for land trusts, landowners, biologists, planers, and students, the handbook explains biodiversity and how it's conserved, what types of biological information are most useful, and how to gather such information through reviews of freely-available data sources and on-the-ground biological inventories. The book also explains how to apply biological information to standard land protection tasks, such as project selection, fundraising, drafting conservation easement language, compiling baseline documentation, writing management plans, and how the information helps land trust projects conform to IRS Treasury regulations and Land Trust Standards and Practices.